These thick, buttery, soft birthday cookies have an incredibly dense (yet moist!) texture and are topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting! Prepare for these scrumptious funfetti cookies to become your new favorite birthday recipe!
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Why I LOVE This Birthday Cake Cookie Recipe
- Incredible texture: these thick birthday cake cookies with frosting have a dense, chewy texture that is at the same time so soft and luscious. If you've ever tried my all-time favorite lemon sugar cookies, this recipe uses that same incredible base dough! No premade cake mix or oil here.
- Buttery cake batter flavor: these cookies use cake batter extract to give them that iconic, buttery cake batter flavor! If you can't find that, this recipe still works great as a regular sugar using vanilla, almond or lemon extract.
- Festive & fun: Rainbow sprinkles are truly the gateway to all my favorite cookies & are the perfect addition to any birthday party. These are so fun for birthday treats or anytime you're trying to win a baking competition. You can even mix in white chocolate chips!
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
- For the best results, don't skip the cake batter extract! A lot of grocery stores carry this now but you can also buy it on Amazon for a few bucks - it's so good in baked goods, frostings, or even directly in ice cream! Apparently, McCormick just changed the name of their "vanilla butter and nut flavor" to cake batter, so if you have that on hand, it's likely the same thing! If needed, you can use ¼ teaspoon of almond extract in the dough & ¼ teaspoon in the frosting. Or for a more natural flavor, you can substitute in more pure vanilla extract or imitation vanilla.
- Scoop them big! To get thick, moist large cookies, I highly recommend scooping these ¼ cup big (I used a 4-tablespoon cookie scoop but you can also use a medium ice cream scooper).
- Try them chilled! The texture gets even more perfectly dense & chewy after a night in the fridge! I developed this base dough before Crumbl cookies existed (and I haven't tried their birthday cake cookies yet!) but I'd say the texture of these cookies is very similar to their other chilled cookies!
- Once frosted, store them in an airtight container.
Looking for a more traditional birthday cake? Make my funfetti cookie cake! It's a sprinkle-filled, chewy cookie cake that has a classic birthday cake flavor...but in cookie form!
Watch me make these on TikTok!
These birthday cake cookies have gained over 300k views on TikTok! One follower said, "I just made these tonight after watching your video- they are SO good!".
How to Make The Best Birthday Cake Cookies:
This is just an overview showing step-by-step photos, jump down to full recipe card with exact instructions.
Step 1: Make Dough
Follow the instructions in the recipe card below to make the sugar cookie dough. No need to separate the wet & dry ingredients, everything can go in one large bowl! The texture of the dough should be similar to playdoh (it will firm up after a few minutes as the melted butter cools). If it looks runnier than the photo below, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour.
Mixing tip: I love this dough recipe because the melted butter allows you to mix it by hand without an electric mixer (and avoids having to use room-temperature ingredients!). That said, you will need to make the frosting using a hand mixer or in a bowl of a stand mixer for it to truly become smooth.
Step 2: Scoop, Roll, Flatten, Bake
After scooping into 4 tablespoon-sized cookie dough balls (i.e. ¼ cup), use your hands to roll into balls and then flatten the tops a bit to look like thick discs (see below). This helps them bake and spread into a nice even cookie without having dome tops.
Remove them from the oven when the centers no longer look wet, but before you see any golden brown color around the edges.
Tip: If you're passionate about big, bakery-style cookies then you need this ¼ cup cookie scoop!
Step 3: Make Frosting
After allowing the baked cookies to cool, whip up a batch of the cake batter cream cheese frosting and pipe it on top. This buttercream frosting is super creamy, has a butter cake batter flavor, and is the perfect consistency for piping basic swirls or spreading with a knife.
Tip: When piping, hold the tip very close (but not touching) to the cookie to get an even layer of frosting. Holding it too high above the cookie & swirling it will result in a THICK layer and you will likely run out of frosting before you frost all the cookies ;) If you like a very thick layer, 1.5x or 2x the frosting recipe.
Step 4: Top with sprinkles!
Top each cookie with rainbow sprinkles, then enjoy! These are so much better than dry, store-bought cookies and you won't turn back after making these birthday cake cookies from scratch!
They are sure to win over any crowd or just to make for a weekend treat and may just remind you of the popular crumbl birthday cake cookies!
Storage & Freezing
- Storing: Because the frosting uses cream cheese, you need to store the frosted cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator. These cookies stay soft & moist for 3-4 days. If you are leaving the frosting off, no refrigeration is needed. Simply store in an airtight container (and you can even put a slice of bread in the container to make them last longer!).
- Freezing: While you can freeze the frosted cookies, I would recommend freezing them unfrosted to prevent the sprinkle colors from bleeding. When ready to serve, thaw cookies and top with freshly made cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.
Gifting idea: Gift them in a bakery box and attach a gift card! Check out my 7 Easy Cookie Packaging Ideas for packaging links and printable tags!
Tips & Tricks
- Don't skip the cake batter extract! A lot of grocery stores carry this now but you can also buy it on Amazon for a few bucks - it's so good in baked goods, frostings, or even directly in cake batter ice cream! Apparently, McCormick just changed the name of their "vanilla butter and nut flavor" to cake batter, so if you have that on hand, it's likely the same thing!
- Scoop them big! To get a thick, moist cookie I highly recommend scooping these ¼ cup big (I used a 4-tablespoon cookie scoop!).
- Try them chilled! The texture gets even more perfectly dense & chewy after a night in the fridge! I developed this base dough before Crumbl existed (and I haven't tried their birthday cake flavor yet!) but I'd say the texture of these cookies is very similar to their other chilled cookies!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Frosted Birthday Cake Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (i.e. 1 ½ sticks) you will be melting this
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cake batter extract see notes for substitutions
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk (you will be using 1 whole egg + 1 extra egg yolk)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour be sure not to overmeasure
- ¼ cup rainbow sprinkles you can use more or less based on your preference!
Cream Cheese Frosting (if you like a THICK layer of frosting, double the frosting recipe!)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (i.e. ½ stick) softened
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cake batter extract see notes for substitutions
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons milk if needed to thin frosting
Topping
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and set aside.
- In a small glass bowl, microwave unsalted butter (¾ cup, i.e. 1 ½ sticks) until melted. Pour into large mixing bowl. Add in granulated sugar (½ cup) and powdered sugar (½ cup) and stir until incoporated.
- Add whole egg (1 large), extra egg yolk, vanilla extract (2 teaspoons), and cake batter extract (½ teaspoon) and stir until incorporated.
- Add baking powder (1½ teaspoons), baking soda (½ teaspoon) and salt (¼ teaspoon). Mix until combined. Half cup at a time, add all-purpose flour (2½ cups) and mix until flour is just incorporated. Mix in rainbow sprinkles (¼ cup).The texture of the dough should be similar to playdoh (it will firm up after a few minutes as the melted butter cools). If it looks runnier than the photo above, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour.
- Scoop dough into ¼ cup (i.e. 4-tablespoon sized) scoops, then roll into a ball. Lightly flatten each ball before placing on cookie sheet. (Because this has melted butter, do not let the dough sit out before rolling into balls & baking, or your dough will become dry and crumbly.)
- Bake at 350° degrees for 11-12 minutes until center no longer looks wet and the edges have the tiniest amount of brown. They may look slightly underdone, but they will finish baking on the hot cookie sheet after you take it out of the oven. (Of course, because ovens bake differently use your best judgment to keep them in a minute longer if they look severely underbaked.)
- After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.
To make frosting:
- Note: if you like a THICK layer of frosting, double the frosting recipe!
- In a large bowl, beat the unsalted butter (¼ cup, i.e. ½ stick) and cream cheese (4-ounces) on medium speed using a hand or stand mixer (with paddle attachment) for about 1 minute (until light and creamy).
- Keeping the mixer on medium speed, slowly add in vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), cake batter extract (¼ teaspoon) and powdered sugar (1½ cups). Once incorporated, turn mixer to high speed and beat for 2 minutes until creamy.If your frosting is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to thin it out. If it it too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.
- Spread or pipe frosting on cooled cookies and top with sprinkles! For the perfect cookie swirl, I use a large round tip. Piping tip! When piping, hold the tip very close (but not touching) the cookie to get a even layer of frosting. Holding it too high above the cookie & swirling it will result in a THICK layer and you will likely run out of frosting before you frost all the cookies ;) If you like a very thick layer, 1.5x or 2x the frosting recipe.
- Store the frosted cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator. These cookies stay soft & moist for 3-4 days.
Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe! This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Fantastic tasting cookies!
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Tully!
This is THE recipe for those nostalgic frosted cookies! I’ve tried and tested four other recipes and this is my favorite one by far!!!
Next time, I might play around with the ratio of vanilla to cake batter extract to get a little more of that “birthday cake flavor” but even as is, they’re amazing and I highly recommend everyone gives it a try - even without the frosting.
I'm so glad you enjoyed these cookies, Faiza! Thanks so much for taking time to leave a review!
I made these and they were delicious! I used a whipping paddle in my kitchen aid for the frosting and it made it so fluffy the recipe of the frosting was in-between a buttercream and cream cheese frosting it was so perfect! I definitely recommend it.
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks so much for taking time to leave a review!
I’ve made these a few times and they always turn out great!
Thank you so much for leaving a review, Chelsea! I really appreciate it!
Love this recipe and would make it again and next time I wouldn’t flatten them out so much 😳 I can’t remember what I was thinking…
Thanks for this great recipe can’t wait to make them! How many cookies does this make please? 👀🙂
9 large but you can also adjust the servings in the recipe card to make more!
Made these today and they were delicious! I didn’t end up melting the butter. Just mixing it in and I refrigerated the dough overnight. They baked great. Flavor, smell, texture, sight - all wonderful!
So glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for leaving a review, Chelsea! I really appreciate it!
These are so moist and delicious and a great alternative to making a birthday cake. My coworkers already asked for the recipe. Will make again for the next birthday treats.
Taste amazing. I think I did something wrong there like mini cakes and the dough was like batter idk still delicious
Hey Kayla! Did you happen to use margarine rather than real butter?
I made these for thanksgiving family dinner and they are now being requested for Christmas dinner. They were so good and gone within seconds!
Delicious!! I decided to use the buttercream frosting from your sugar cookie recipe instead of the cream cheese and it was so good!!!
Delicious and addicting. New favorite. Thanks for the perfect recipe!
So glad you love this recipe, Christine! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, I really appreciate it!
This recipe was amazing!
The only negative thing I have to say about it, is it’s dangerous.
I’ll be making this again and again!
Your review made me laugh out loud Hannah! So glad that you've enjoyed it.
I followed everything exactly, I had play dough textured dough and they spread into pancakes in the oven.
They definitely should not have flattened like that! A few troubleshooting tips:
1) How old is your baking powder and baking soda? Spreading can happen if they are no longer active.
2) Is there any chance you did 1.5 teaspoons of baking *soda* instead of the powder? This would cause a lot of spreading.
3) Do you have an internal oven themometer? Most ovens run 15-20 degrees hot or cold and an oven that runs cold does cause cookies to bake slower and spread more.
4) What kind of butter did you use? Margarine, "real" butter, or european-style butter?
This recipe uses the same base sugar cookie dough recipe that I've been making for years & I've never had this issue myself or from readers, so I'd definitely check your leavening!
We made this recipe..we loved it. Made just like the recipe said they came out great!!!
So glad that you loved these cookies, Diane!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, I appreciate it!
We made this recipe..we loved it. Made just like the recipe said.
So glad that you loved the recipe Diane!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, I so appreciate it!